Beechworth to Huggins Lookout - day three of our road trip

We woke on the Friday morning, early, and cold from a night of near zero temperatures... the sleeping bags and tent worked wonders in keeping us warm but not so good when you have to get up!

It turned into a stunning autumn day and we took the drive to Beechworth, about 58km from Bright. Beechworth has to be the tidiest, best preserved town from the gold rush era in Victoria (the 1850s) - it's almost a little too perfect...

We arrived as the local Anzac Day memorial was underway in the main park, watched on for a while (I decided not to take pictures as there were a lot of very emotional people) and then decided to go for a wander before seeking out lunch a little later.

Starting out in the historic precinct, we ended up walking up to the La Trobe gardens and back (about a 40 minute round trip), before lunch at the local provender, followed by more walking.

We then walked down where I'd seen the facade of an old building standing when we'd first arrived a couple of hours earlier... it turns out it is the now empty site of Beechworth’s first hospital, built in 1857 at a cost of 2,347 Pounds. Most of the hospital was demolished in 1940 for salvageable materials during the second World War.

All that remains today is the facade and remnants of the once grand gardens (you can see the remaining Bunya Pine and Californian Redwood trees through the facade's windows).

After Beechworth, we headed back to Bright, and ventured up to Huggins' Lookout, a great 4WD track that shows some spectacular views of Bright...

At the end of the day, we were exhausted... we grabbed dinner at the local fish and chippery and ate it in front of our campfire, as the drunk thirty-year old women on the site next to us sung along to Britney Spears, acapella style... lol